92 replies to this topic

[tojoski]

These are really cool looking, unfortunately USB3 is only on the front.. still looking though.

http://usa.aopen.com...=3094&mdstl=363

EDIT: Cool looking yes, practical no, these are Intel G2 sockets designed for mobile chips = very expensive

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16819111025

Edited by tojoski, 19 October 2011 - 09:41 PM.

[fblittle]

Jim:

I like the Zotec as well. It is still available out there if you look.
http://www.shopblt.com/cgi-bin/shop/shop.cgi?action=enter&thispage=01000000U0127_BLC4189P.shtml&order_id=!ORDERID!#Availability

Only $207.41

[jcollison]

Jim:

I like the Zotec as well. It is still available out there if you look.
http://www.shopblt.c...D!#Availability

Only $207.41

Sorry about that...I should have mentioned that I did find that one for 207 as well. Just might pull the trigger if nothing else come up.

[Pedro_Mann]

This is my first offical post, but I always love specing out build, so I thought I'de get involved. If I was to do a build for your specs I'de choose the following:

Antec ISK 300-150 $70

I've noticed many of the tiny mini-itx cases have external power bricks. It looks like this one has an internal power supply so that is a plus. Also, this thing will take dual laptop drives so a RAID 1 is possible with this case.

ASUS E35M1-M PRO Fusion AMD E-350 APU $120

Should be plenty of power in the cpu to run WHS, plus the benefit of a little GPU power in case you ever want to repurpse this as an HTPC someday, or mess around with GPU assisted transcoding. Also included, USB 3.0 ESata etc. Don't forget, the ASUS boards support UEFI so you get the cool graphical boot menu as well as large hard drive support.

Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 $50

Why go less than 8GB these days? Also, 1600Mhz is the sweet spot for the AMD GPU's since it is shared RAM. I was thinking about others like the Ripjaws which I have in my HTPC. I would be worried about big heat spreaders getting in the way in such a tight build.

HITACHI Travelstar Z5K500 500GB Qty. 2 $120

The hard drive is up for debate. I always like the highest density possible. This one is a single platter 500GB, which also makes it thin. And should run very cool, due to single platter design and 5400 RPM. Spec'ed out 2 for RAID just becuase.

Optical Drive ??

Just whatever you have laying around?


Total Price $299 with 1 HD or $360 with 2 HD's Not a bad price for a little server. What do you think?

-Peter

[Pedro_Mann]

ASUS E35M1-M PRO Fusion AMD E-350 APU $120

Should be plenty of power in the cpu to run WHS, plus the benefit of a little GPU power in case you ever want to repurpse this as an HTPC someday, or mess around with GPU assisted transcoding. Also included, USB 3.0 ESata etc. Don't forget, the ASUS boards support UEFI so you get the cool graphical boot menu as well as large hard drive support.

I was double checking my links and I realized I spec'd out a micro-ATX board which of course won't fit. Directly competitive is a Gigabyte board, although I dislike the gigabytes currently because they haven't gone UEFI yet.

GIGABYTE GA-E350N-USB3 AMD E-350 $120



This one is sweet, but probably overkill (Maybe the wifi could work with pfsense?)

ASUS E35M1-I DELUXE Fusion AMD E-350 $175

[Greg Welch]

Jim,
Just a thought. If you get a very small case to pair with the drobo, there is no turning back. If you get a case that has room for at least a few internal drives, at least you can still have a server if the Drobo gives out or you get in the mood to put that raid card to use, you will not be stuck with a case or system you cannot do much with. Just a thought.

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811112227


http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811112265

I have both cases and the second one Q08 is a six drive bay unit that is fantastic

[jcollison]

This is my first offical post, but I always love specing out build, so I thought I'de get involved. If I was to do a build for your specs I'de choose the following:

Antec ISK 300-150 $70

I've noticed many of the tiny mini-itx cases have external power bricks. It looks like this one has an internal power supply so that is a plus. Also, this thing will take dual laptop drives so a RAID 1 is possible with this case.

ASUS E35M1-M PRO Fusion AMD E-350 APU $120

Should be plenty of power in the cpu to run WHS, plus the benefit of a little GPU power in case you ever want to repurpse this as an HTPC someday, or mess around with GPU assisted transcoding. Also included, USB 3.0 ESata etc. Don't forget, the ASUS boards support UEFI so you get the cool graphical boot menu as well as large hard drive support.

Crucial 8GB (2 x 4GB) 240-Pin DDR3 1600 $50

Why go less than 8GB these days? Also, 1600Mhz is the sweet spot for the AMD GPU's since it is shared RAM. I was thinking about others like the Ripjaws which I have in my HTPC. I would be worried about big heat spreaders getting in the way in such a tight build.

HITACHI Travelstar Z5K500 500GB Qty. 2 $120

The hard drive is up for debate. I always like the highest density possible. This one is a single platter 500GB, which also makes it thin. And should run very cool, due to single platter design and 5400 RPM. Spec'ed out 2 for RAID just becuase.

Optical Drive ??

Just whatever you have laying around?


Total Price $299 with 1 HD or $360 with 2 HD's Not a bad price for a little server. What do you think?

-Peter

Peter...thanks for the parts. I like your thinking here and will add them to my parts list over at:

http://theaverageguy...1-with-drobo-s/

I think I already had this case listed. I will have to compare boards. Edit...the board is an ATX board and the case is ITX. Need something smaller. What do you think of this board? http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813157247


Will most likely end up going with an IcyDock enclosure for the OS Drive. Check the post for that configuration.

Congrats on the first post. I hope you will continue to post here at the Home Server Show!

[pluggedinpc]

Hi all,

This is my first post and I've just been listening to the HSS podcast for the past couple months.

Thought I'd start with a config for you Jim.

This system is probably a little more pricey than you want but it will certainly meet your needs and future-proof yourself whether you want to re-tool it as a HTPC.

Now I'm from Australia so obviously you may need to find the parts from another store but the prices should at least make for a reference.

Case:
http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=12145

Slighty bigger than the Drobo but I think would nicely complement it. No USB 3.0 on the front panel but the Mobo has USB 3.0 ports so I didn't think it would be a big deal.

MB:
http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=18485

Has everything you want and more... WiFi A/B/G/N, Gigabit LAN, Sata III, USB 3.0, Supports AMD FM1 APU with on board ATI Video

CPU:
http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=17807

Quad-core, on-board Graphics.. great to re-purpose it as a HTPC down the track.

RAM:
http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=15517

Stable, reliable. 1333 should be fast enough for your needs but otherwise RAM is pretty interchangible. Certainly wouldn't go less than 8GB as most people are saying.

HDD:
http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=16861

More than big enough for O/S and nice a quick WD Black SATA III

OPTICAL:
http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=18617
or
http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=16501

If required, otherwise leave it out...


All in all, this will cost you around $650AUD but take the optical drive out and you're looking around a $550AUD Server.

Anyway, look forward to hearing more great podcasts :-)

Tell me what you think about my config.

Edited by pluggedinpc, 23 October 2011 - 09:43 PM.

[jcollison]

Hi all,

This is my first post and I've just been listening to the HSS podcast for the past couple months.

Thought I'd start with a config for you Jim.

This system is probably a little more pricey than you want but it will certainly meet your needs and future-proof yourself whether you want to re-tool it as a HTPC.

Now I'm from Australia so obviously you may need to find the parts from another store but the prices should at least make for a reference.

Case:
http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=12145

Slighty bigger than the Drobo but I think would nicely complement it. No USB 3.0 on the front panel but the Mobo has USB 3.0 ports so I didn't think it would be a big deal.

MB:
http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=18485

Has everything you want and more... WiFi A/B/G/N, Gigabit LAN, Sata III, USB 3.0, Supports AMD FM1 APU with on board ATI Video

CPU:
http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=17807

Quad-core, on-board Graphics.. great to re-purpose it as a HTPC down the track.

RAM:
http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=15517

Stable, reliable. 1333 should be fast enough for your needs but otherwise RAM is pretty interchangible. Certainly wouldn't go less than 8GB as most people are saying.

HDD:
http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=16861

More than big enough for O/S and nice a quick WD Black SATA III

OPTICAL:
http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=18617
or
http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=16501

If required, otherwise leave it out...


All in all, this will cost you around $650AUD but take the opticla drive out and you're looking at a $500 Server.

Anyway, look forward to hearing more great podcasts :-)

Tell me what you tihnk about my config.

You can check the current parts I am considering over at: http://theaverageguy...1-with-drobo-s/

Case: I have one just like it posted. http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811163171

Mobo: I do like this board. Will add to my list.

CPU: A bit of an over kill...but would have some growth. Will add to the list as well.

RAM: Will make that decision later. Almost a non-issue at this point for me.

HD: I think I will go with smaller laptop drives in an IceDock MB982SPR-2S. It's not listed yet, but it will be.

Optical: Would rather not make that decision yet. Like memory.

Keep it coming. Take a look at the parts I am considering. Thanks for taking some time to post and welcome to the forums!

[pluggedinpc]

You can check the current parts I am considering over at: http://theaverageguy...1-with-drobo-s/

Case: I have one just like it posted. http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811163171

Mobo: I do like this board. Will add to my list.

CPU: A bit of an over kill...but would have some growth. Will add to the list as well.

RAM: Will make that decision later. Almost a non-issue at this point for me.

HD: I think I will go with smaller laptop drives in an IceDock MB982SPR-2S. It's not listed yet, but it will be.

Optical: Would rather not make that decision yet. Like memory.

Keep it coming. Take a look at the parts I am considering. Thanks for taking some time to post and welcome to the forums!

Thanks, went with the Quad Core for the future-proofing, otherwise you could go for a Dual Core:

http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=18383

Low-power, certainly still fast enough and much cheaper

[jcollison]

Thanks, went with the Quad Core for the future-proofing, otherwise you could go for a Dual Core:

http://www.pccasegea...oducts_id=18383

Low-power, certainly still fast enough and much cheaper

Yea...that is a decision I will have to make on the CPU. Added it to the master parts list.

[pluggedinpc]

Yea...that is a decision I will have to make on the CPU. Added it to the master parts list.

Cool. Good luck Mr Drobo... I'm interested to see the final build. :-)

[Pedro_Mann]

Peter...thanks for the parts. I like your thinking here and will add them to my parts list over at:

http://theaverageguy...1-with-drobo-s/

I think I already had this case listed. I will have to compare boards. Edit...the board is an ATX board and the case is ITX. Need something smaller. What do you think of this board? http://www.newegg.co...N82E16813157247


Will most likely end up going with an IcyDock enclosure for the OS Drive. Check the post for that configuration.

Congrats on the first post. I hope you will continue to post here at the Home Server Show!

Yeah, I noticed after I submitted that motherboard wouldn't work. The asrock MB is perfect, has all the bells and whistles with no legacy BIOS.

I was looking at the case some more and noticed it does have a half height slot available so you can expand a little too, how about a dual port nic so you can run pfsense in a vm? I tried to find something that would fit and wasn't crazy expensive. I'de check it against HCL first, and I suspect it is probably an intel chipset. Not positive though.
http://www.neworldit...e=412648-B21-NB $84
or
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16833106015 $139

For the sake of completeness, I was looking at this case, before you mentioned you wanted to go small. I subscribe to the bigger is better category and this bad boy can host a 6 drive raid array + ssd on it's own. I guess that's the point of the drobo though (Probably cheaper than dremeling out the guts of a real drobo though)
http://www.newegg.co...N82E16811352019 $189

Edited by Pedro_Mann, 24 October 2011 - 12:51 AM.

[no-control]

Here is the front runner.
Zotac ZBOXNANO-AD10-U AMD Hudson M1 1 x 204Pin AMD Radeon HD 6310 Mini / Booksize Barebone System

Is that the new Ice Cream Sandwich everyone keeps talking about?






Nice Klondike Bar....Moonpie anyone? DoubleStuff OREOs are square now?..... I could keep going

Edited by no-control, 30 October 2011 - 09:27 PM.

[ikon]

Is that the new Ice Cream Sandwich everyone keeps talking about?






Nice Klondike Bar....Moonpie anyone? DoubleStuff OREOs are square now?..... I could keep going

But thankfully you didn't j/k

[Joe_Miner]

Here is the front runner.
Zotac ZBOXNANO-AD10-U AMD Hudson M1 1 x 204Pin AMD Radeon HD 6310 Mini / Booksize Barebone System


Out of Stock at the moment. Something like this would be awesome!

This is a nice machine -- it's got my vote

Have you considered using a SSD for the HD in this?

[ikon]

oops. That Zotac is not only out of stock, it's also deactivated.

[jcollison]

I have found it elsewhere. Thanks

[ikon]

I have found it elsewhere. Thanks

Better hit that BUY button quick then

[jcollison]

Ok...just found this one this morning:

http://www.newegg.co...N82E16856119050

Good price, good chip and USB 3.0. It's also in stock.